Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-12-16
A GERMANS HOT PROTEST
Against the Shameful Attitude of the
Germans Oil the Liquor
Question
DcnunciatiOn of the Men Who Are
Trying to Destroy the Amer.
lean Sunday.
Translated from Der Chrstliche Apologize, y
Cincinnati

BLIND LEADERS OF THE PEOPLE.
We speak now US German to Germans,
and ask the serious and simple question:
Does the German daily press have decent
regard for the moral disposition of the
German American people? One does not
demand of it that 1t shall transform itself
into religious press. But though it may
not seek the one priceless pearl, it should
at least strive for good pearls. 1t should
take an honest manly. and sympathetic
stand upon all questions which intimately
concern the protection of public morals,
the progress OF virtue and the increase of
the conditions of home happiness and the
general welfare. But with sorrow we see
that instead of leading and strengthening
what is for the good and elevation of the
people, the German press too often sub
mssively bows to the DEGREES of pernicious
public feeling, and is content to swim with
the stream, no matter how severely public
morals may suffer, and not caring whether
the last vestige of respect for the laws of
God and man shall disappear.
In regard to two most important matters,
this indifference of the German American
press is particularly shown-in regard to
the Sunday question and to the drink ques-
ton. The time is past when people may
dismiss these questions by sneeringly ridi-
tanism. They have become great world
questions; and one can not but feel the
deepest Indignation at seeing men who by
observation must be aware of the benefits
and blessings bestowed by the American
Sabbath lift their wicked hands against it,
and attempt to convert 1t into day of
| drunkenness and rlotlng.
| And must not every German who has in
his heart spark OF patriotism and noble
emotion feel his blood boil within him when
| he hears the German press of America,
with almost unanimous voice, declare to
"Germandom that, i'll spite Of the measure
less deyastations wrought by the liquor
traffic, the German must seek his crowning
glory i'll the fight against the temperance
issue. and must find his worthiest COM
patriots in the beer breweres and the
liquor saloons!
Have, then, these pretended leaders of
German spirit, German thought, German
decency and German public virtue no eye
for the frightful impetuous spread and
growing might of this unbridled and mer-
CHESS traffic of hell? Have they no thought
for the disgrace that they bring upon the
German name by praising and defending
the liberty to drink as the highest and most
precious Of all the liberties that the Ger
mans en- ov? Have the Germans nothing
else to save but the beer-glass? Shall
the German draw his sword only for the
liquor saloon and never for its poor VIC
tins?
Why is this cold, heartless indifference
toward the most powerful and hideous vice
that holds unhappy humanity in bonds?
Why does the German press discover in ev-
cry, earnest e. endeavor to check the drink
evil fanatical threat against personal
liberty" Why are the united Ger
mans Of this country classed as
friends and protectors of the saloon?
Why may not and cannot q Ger
man with his whole heart approve of and
assist the efforts to root out this business
that is So terrible foe to humanity? We
know that no habit works so lnsidiously as
the drink habit: that no desire is SO easily
awakened or so powerfully and surely roots
itself as the desire for alcohol; that there
is no other means on earth by which SO
rapidly and certainly all nobler desires are
made to perish, the will is enfeebled, the
health is ruined, and domestic happiness,
business and responsibility are destroyed,
as by the surrender to the drink appetite.
And yet men gaze with cold looks and in
different hearts while the liquor saloons
prosecute their demoralizing and murder
Gus business from early morning until late
at night, not on working days only, but
also through the whole blessed, liyelone
Sabbath day; while one brewery after
another is built, and saloon after saloon
follows, until this mighty traffic gradually
acquires in all our great cities more
property in land and buildings than any
other industry. Yes, an industry it must
be called, in the strict sense of the word
diligence and perseverance as this.
How far Shn1l this thinu Uo9 Who're
shall we land? DO our statecrafty politi
clans and our moneywise proprietors of
newspapers discover in the enormous
wealth of the liquor traffic only guide
post pointing them to the shortest road tc
political success or personal fortune: Is
all nobleness or humaneness dead? Has
Mammon indeed overcome all moral prin-
ciple? DO our daily papers exist only fol
vulgar gain and party?
Their bastard Y silence il, the presence OF
the boundleSs ruin which tn. drink tratli,
produces. their dead apathy in the pres
ence Of the colossal system OF robber,
which t!.is traffic plo1;:cts a-ainst lunar
so 'iety, their eager espousal of the huuo1
saloon III all lis nuliic .toHs OF the law
Yes, their insolent aoet;ing of the saloon.
keepers to an open and united revolution
against Ia" and public order unharpll>
leave no room for shadow OF doubt thu,
they are in:iuenc by tue money Of the
liquor dealers and are conscious and will.
ing partukers in all that is bound up in thi!
traffic.
! Since the great mass of the German pco
pic i'll the United States are guided by srl"l
daily newspapers and are educated and lee
by them. is it any wontler that the bushes.
OF tie mann acture and safe of intoxicat
ing drinks i, chiefly in German Lands, O.
that despite the much bo"sted tiarlna:
mod ration The vice of Drunkenness
which ether solid virtues cannot free then
FROM is claiming thousands Of vir,i1n
AMONG tn. Germans: But, God b,
praised, /; Shall not always be so. Th,
hop. OF seeing the German press take
new attitude, through which in rlgh
sense We may be characterized as "a socia
bic people. is perhaps al idle one for tn
present. But it will come with time. Til
nobler German spirit will not always bow
under the yoke, but will demand the ami
hilation Of the tyrannical traffic. For. II
use the words of q foreign German paper
No modern nation can, without doiu,
injury to itself, postpone the time of solu
ton Of this question; and it is one of Ill
highest duties of the legislator to seek TO
the conditions by which it shall be posi-
BILE to protect the people from this slow